British army parachutes hantavirus response team to remote island (VIDEO)
The British military has had to airdrop medics and supplies to treat a suspected hantavirus case in a remote overseas territory Read Full Article at RT.com
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The remote overseas territory of Tristan da Cunha in the southern Atlantic has no airstrip and can only be reached by sea
The British Army has airdropped a team of medics accompanied by paratroopers to treat a suspected hantavirus case on the remote island of Tristan da Cunha. The patient was among the passengers who left the Dutch-flagged cruise vessel MV Hondius before the deadly outbreak was confirmed.
The cruise liner, now dubbed the “plague ship” by some media, initially carried 175 guests and crew from 23 countries when it suffered an outbreak of a rare pathogen typically spread through contact with infected rodent droppings. The outbreak was caused by the Andes strain of hantavirus – the only one known to be capable of human-to-human transmission through close contact.
READ MORE: Hantavirus: How dangerous is the cruise ship outbreak?
One of the passengers left the vessel on his home island of Tristan da Cunha, located in the southern Atlantic, on April 14 – three days after the first death – and reported his first symptoms two weeks later. The man is said to be in stable condition.
9,788km from the UK across the South Atlantic, one operation
